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diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7776f2e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- boostrapping a (Linux x86-64) C compiler --- + +Compilers nowadays are written in languages like C, which themselves need to be +compiled. But then, you need a C compiler to compile your C compiler! Of course, +the very first C compiler was not written in C (because how would it be +compiled?). Instead, it was slowly built up, starting from a very basic +assembler, eventually reacing a full-scale compiler. This process is known as +bootstrapping. In this repository, we'll explore how that's done. Each directory +represents a new "stage" in the process. The first one, "00", is a hand-written +executable, and the last one will be a C compiler. Each directory has its own +README.txt explaining in full what's going on. + +-- instruction set -- +x86-64 has a *gigantic* instruction set. The manual for it is over 2,000 pages +long! So, it makes sense to select only a small subset of it to use for all the +stages of our compiler. The set I've chosen can be found in instructions.txt (a +work in progress). I think it achieves a pretty good balance between +having few enough instructions to be manageable and having enough +instructions to be useable. + +-- license -- + +This software is in the public domain. Any copyright protections from any law +for this software are forfeited by the author(s). No warranty is provided for +this software, and the author(s) shall not be held liable in connection with it. |